Nationwide, none of the candidates had received a majority of the electoral votes, so the top three finishers went to the House of Representatives for a final election. Clay, Missouri's choice, finished fourth nationwide and did not qualify for the House election. This left John Scott, Missouri's representative in the House, to decide who the state would vote for in the contingent election. Clay endorsed Adams, but Jackson had been much more popular in the state than Adams, so there was no clear choice for Scott. Of Missouri's two United States senators, David Barton advised Scott to vote for Adams, while Thomas Hart Benton backed Jackson.
Scott decided to vote for Adams, who won the overall election. Clay had performed some background maneuvering in favor of Adams, and received an appointment as secretary of state. Jackson, who had finished with the most electoral votes in the initial run, considered Adams' election a "corrupt bargain". Scott's decision to vote for Adams proved unpopular in Missouri, and he lost his bid for re-election in 1826. Jackson defeated Adams in the 1828 United States presidential election.
In the late 1810s and early 1820s, the United States was in a national political environment known as the Era of Good Feelings, and the two major parties–the Democratic-Republican Party and the Federalist Party–both supported James Monroe in the 1820 United States presidential election. However, there were still party divisions, with the partisan contests becoming mainline Democratic-Republicans opposing a mixed group of Federalists and dissatisfied Democratic-Republicans.[1] The 1824 presidential election featured four major candidates: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay.[2]John C. Calhoun had also been an important candidate, but dropped out of the presidential race for the vice presidency.[3] All five of those candidates laid claim to the political legacy of Thomas Jefferson. Crawford, who had the support of party elites, ran as a party traditionalist, while Jackson was a populist. Clay was a proponent of protective tariffs and internal improvements, and Calhoun positioned himself as a candidate that could appeal to both the northern and southern regions of the country.[4] Adams was highly experienced, but in the words of historian Donald Ratcliffe, "was a humorless, stiff-necked, distant patrician".[5]
The state of Missouri was a new one, having only joined the United States in 1821, and Missouri statehood was contentious due to national debates over the expansion or restriction of slavery, which was legal in Missouri. The disagreements were temporarily resolved by the Missouri Compromise, which allowed the admission of Missouri as a slave state.[6] At this time, two of the major factions in Missouri politics were families who retained power developed during French rule of the area, and newer arrivals who had come after the United States took control. Power at the time was based in the city of St. Louis.[7] The French faction and its American supporters were known as the "little junto", which was opposed by the "antijunto". A lack of party organization and fluid alliances meant that the division between the two factions was not a bright line.[8]
In 1824, Missouri had a single representative in the United States House of Representatives, John Scott, and two United States Senators, Thomas Hart Benton and David Barton.[7] Benton was initially aligned with the little junto, which Scott was also a member of, while Barton did not directly ally with either group.[8] By 1824, Benton was shifting his political positions,[9] and he and Barton had come into direct opposition, due to different political viewpoints and events such as the 1823 Barton–Rector duel.[10] Benton, Barton, and Scott all backed Clay in the presidential election, although Benton did not fully support Clay's stances and had previously backed a ticket of Crawford as presidential candidate and Clay for the vice president.[11] Benton also believed that supporting Clay would help his political transition away from the little junto, and he also wanted to prevent Jackson from taking the state, as Benton worried that Jacksonian ascendancy would end his political career.[12]
The election
Clay was the favorite candidate in Missouri. He was a Kentuckian, as were many settlers of Missouri,[13] and he appealed to both urban and rural residents. Coming from what was then the Western United States, he appealed to rural residents, while urban voters backed his American System economic plan. Jackson was also popular in the rural areas, with historian Perry McCandless stating that Jackson "appealed to the spirit of voter unrest". Adams was associated with the northern United States and with the Federalists, which made him less popular in Missouri, although he did have some support in urban regions, particularly St. Louis. Crawford had no particular support in Missouri,[14] and his campaign was affected when he had a stroke.[15] Scott did not do much campaigning in the presidential election cycle, primarily just issuing a circular, while Benton campaigned the most. Historian Alan S. Weiner notes that it is possible that Barton only campaigned to offset the influence of Benton.[16]
Official popular vote tallies in this era were often inaccurate.[17] McCandless cites the final popular vote tallies for the state as 2,042 for Clay, 1,168 for Jackson, 186 for Adams, 37 for Crawford, and 5 as "scattered".[3] Unofficial figures compiled by historian Phil Lampi show figures of 2,042 for Clay, 1,166 for Jackson, 191 for Adams, and 35 for Crawford.[18] Weiner provides voting breakdowns by electoral district. For the district in the Boonslick region, Weiner has 1,111 for Clay to 610 for Jackson. The Second District was near St. Louis, and Weiner gives returns of 604 for Clay, 239 for Jackson, and 159 for Adams. Southeast Missouri voted 327 for Clay, 317 for Jackson, and 32 for Adams, according to Weiner.[19]Duff Green, a Jackson supporter,[3] claimed that Clay had only won the southeastern Missouri district by voter fraud on the part of a returning officer.[19]
Nationally, Jackson received 99 electoral college votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. For vice president in the electoral college, Calhoun received 182 votes, while Jackson, Clay, Martin Van Buren, Nathan Sanford, and Nathaniel Macon combined for 78. Missouri's three electoral votes went to Clay for president and Jackson for vice president.[20] As none of the candidates had received a majority of the votes, the presidential election had to be decided in the United States House of Representatives. Only the top three candidates were considered for the House of Representatives election, which meant that Clay was eliminated from contention.[21] It was unclear which candidate Missouri's representative should vote for.[22] Crawford's illness rendered him a non-factor,[23] and due to his lack of support in Missouri would not have been a viable candidate for Scott's vote anyway.[24]
Scott had pledged to vote for the candidate favored by the people of Missouri,[23] but who was the favored candidate was not obvious. Clay, Missouri's selection in the popular vote, endorsed Adams in December, but Jackson had been much more popular in Missouri than Adams and had won the most electoral votes.[25] Scott decided to ask the Missouri General Assembly for voting instructions. Before Clay's elimination had been announced as official, a resolution in the Missouri Senate to provide instructions for Scott to vote for Jackson had been defeated, and after the final three candidates were officially known, another resolution to tell Scott to vote for Crawford for unanimously voted down. The Missouri House of Representatives voted to postpone any final decision after a pro-Jackson resolution was introduced, and a pro-Adams resolution only received two of 45 votes, but resolutions introduced by Robert William Wells to officially not endorse any candidate were unsuccessful as well.[26] The rounds of voting on the resolutions had not proved an endorsement for Jackson,[27] but had also indicated the general lack of support for Adams and Crawford in the legislature.[28]
Both Barton and Benton provided Scott with advice.[29] Benton decided to back Jackson. He wished to continue to distance himself from the junta, who supported Adams, and he also recognized that Jackson was simply much more popular in the state than Adams. Benton's opponents in Missouri accused him of duplicity due to his prior support for Clay and later switch to Jackson after Clay's elimination.[30] Barton argued that Scott should vote for Adams, who had the endorsement of Missouri's choice, Clay. This decision led to Barton being viewed by many Missourians as supporting federalism and northern interest.[29]
By January 1825, Clay was directly pressuring Scott to back Adams. Daniel Cook had held discussions with Scott, and informed Adams on January 20 that in order to get Scott's vote, Adams would need to provide some favors to the Missourian. January 21 saw a meeting between Scott and Adams; Scott asked for a government printing contract in Missouri to be given via patronage to a pro-Scott publisher, and the Missourian also asked Adams if he, as president, would have Scott's brother (who had killed a man in a duel) removed from a judicial post in the Arkansas Territory. Having received assurances about the printing contract and that his brother would not be removed, Scott declared to Adams that he would vote for him, although the next day Scott decided that he did not want to commit himself and met with Adams again to soften his guarantee.[31]
On February 5, Scott informed Benton that he intended to vote for Adams; Benton responded angrily three days later.[32] Benton's letter was publicly printed, and McCandless speculates that Benton had intended its benefit to be more for the general public than for Scott specifically.[33] The letter also included a threat of an end to the friendship between Benton and Scott.[34] On February 9, Calhoun was declared the winner of the vice president election, and the House of Representatives balloted for the presidential election. Adams was declared the winner, having carried the delegations of 13 states, compared to 7 for Jackson and 4 for Crawford.[35] Scott, and thus Missouri, had voted for Adams.[33] Clay had performed some maneuvering that played a role in Adams gaining the election, and Adams appointed Clay as secretary of state. Jackson accused Clay of working with Adams to gain the secretary of state office, and referred to the election as a "corrupt bargain".[36]
Aftermath
At first, it appeared that Scott and Barton's political forces had defeated that of Benton, and federal patronage in Missouri would pass through Barton and Scott,[33] although the press generally criticized Scott's decision to vote for Adams.[37] The next test came with the 1825 Missouri gubernatorial special election, which was to fill the vacancy left by the death of incumbent Frederick Bates. In that four-candidate election, Benton backed John Miller, while Barton and Scott supported David Todd. Miller won,[38] and Todd finished third, well behind the leader.[27] In 1826, Scott ran for re-election, but his vote for Adams was a major factor against him in the election, and he was defeated by Edward Bates, who ran a nonfactional platform.[39] Public opposition to the Adams vote had increased since the presidential election.[40] That same year, Benton was easily re-elected as senator.[41]
Jackson was nominated for the 1828 United States presidential election in 1825.[42] Several proposed reforms to prevent another election from going to the House of Representatives were brought up in that body, but none were successful.[43] Political currents from the 1824 election over time led to the development of the Whig Party.[44] The forces of Crawford and Jackson combined before the 1828 election.[45] The 1828 election saw Jackson easily defeat Adams, leading to the rise of Jacksonian democracy.[36]
John Quincy Adams was an American statesman, politician, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diplomatic and political career, Adams served as an ambassador and also as a member of the United States Congress representing Massachusetts in both chambers. He was the eldest son of John Adams, who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801, and First Lady Abigail Adams. Initially a Federalist like his father, he won election to the presidency as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and later, in the mid-1830s, became affiliated with the Whig Party.
The Republican Party, retroactively called the Democratic-Republican Party, and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s that championed republicanism, individual liberty, equal rights, decentralization, free markets, free trade, agrarianism, and sympathy with the French Revolution. The party became increasingly dominant after the 1800 elections as the opposing Federalist Party collapsed.
The 1824 United States presidential election was the tenth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Tuesday, October 26 to Thursday, December 2, 1824. Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and William Crawford were the primary contenders for the presidency. The result of the election was inconclusive, as no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote. In the election for vice president, John C. Calhoun was elected with a comfortable majority of the vote. Because none of the candidates for president garnered an electoral vote majority, the U.S. House of Representatives, under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment, held a contingent election. On February 9, 1825, the House voted to elect John Quincy Adams as president.
The 1828 United States presidential election was the 11th quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, October 31 to Tuesday, December 2, 1828. It featured a repetition of the 1824 election, as President John Quincy Adams of the National Republican Party faced Andrew Jackson of the Democratic Party. Both parties were new organizations, and this was the first presidential election their nominees contested. This election saw the second rematch in presidential history, something that would not occur again until 1840.
The 1832 United States presidential election was the 12th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, November 2 to Wednesday, December 5, 1832. Incumbent president Andrew Jackson, candidate of the Democratic Party, defeated Henry Clay, candidate of the National Republican Party.
Henry Clay Sr. was an American lawyer, politician and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the "Great Compromiser" and was part of the "Great Triumvirate" of Congressmen alongside fellow Whig Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun.
Daniel Webster was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. Webster was one of the most prominent American lawyers of the 19th century, arguing over 200 cases before the United States Supreme Court in his career. During his life, Webster had been a member of the Federalist Party, the National Republican Party, and the Whig Party. He was among the three members of the Great Triumvirate along with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.
Thomas Hart Benton, nicknamed "Old Bullion", was a United States Senator from Missouri. A member of the Democratic Party, he was an architect and champion of westward expansion by the United States, a cause that became known as Manifest Destiny. Benton served in the Senate from 1821 to 1851, becoming the first member of that body to serve five terms.
William Harris Crawford was an American politician and judge during the early 19th century. He served as US Secretary of War and US Secretary of the Treasury before he ran for US president in the 1824 election.
Three events in American political history have been called a corrupt bargain: the 1824 United States presidential election, the Compromise of 1877, and Gerald Ford's 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon.
The presidency of James Monroe began on March 4, 1817, when James Monroe was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1825. Monroe, the fifth United States president, took office after winning the 1816 presidential election by an overwhelming margin over Federalist Rufus King. This election was the last in which the Federalists fielded a presidential candidate, and Monroe was unopposed in the 1820 presidential election. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was succeeded by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams.
The presidency of John Quincy Adams, began on March 4, 1825, when John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1829. Adams, the sixth United States president, took office following the 1824 presidential election, in which he and three other Democratic-Republicans—Henry Clay, William H. Crawford, and Andrew Jackson—sought the presidency. Adams was not a strong president, and he was under continuous attack from Jackson who easily defeated him in the 1828 presidential election.
The 1824 United States presidential election in New York took place between October 26 and December 2, 1824, as part of the 1824 United States presidential election. The state legislature chose 36 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
The 1824 United States elections elected the members of the 19th United States Congress. It marked the end of the Era of Good Feelings and the First Party System. The divided outcome in the 1824 presidential contest reflected the renewed partisanship and emerging regional interests that defined a fundamentally changed political landscape. The bitterness that followed the election ensured political divisions would be long-lasting and facilitated the gradual emergence of what would eventually become the Second Party System. Members of the Democratic-Republican Party continued to maintain a dominant role in federal politics, but the party became factionalized between supporters of Andrew Jackson and supporters of John Quincy Adams. The Federalist Party ceased to function as a national party, having fallen into irrelevance following a relatively strong performance in 1812.
In 1828, Andrew Jackson, who had lost the 1824 election in a runoff in the United States House of Representatives, despite winning both the popular vote and the Electoral vote by significant margins, ran for President of the United States. He had been nominated by the Tennessee state legislature in 1825, and did not face any opposition from Democratic candidates. Jackson launched his campaign on January 8, 1828, with a major speech on the 13th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans from 1815, thus marking the birth of the modern Democratic Party. Jackson accepted John C. Calhoun, incumbent vice president under John Quincy Adams, as his running mate.
In the United States, a contingent election is used to elect the president or vice president if no candidate receives a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed. A presidential contingent election is decided by a special vote of the United States House of Representatives, while a vice-presidential contingent election is decided by a vote of the United States Senate. During a contingent election in the House, each state delegation votes en bloc to choose the president instead of representatives voting individually. Senators, by contrast, cast votes individually for vice president.
The history of the United States Whig Party lasted from the establishment of the Whig Party early in President Andrew Jackson's second term (1833–1837) to the collapse of the party during the term of President Franklin Pierce (1853–1857).
American politician John Quincy Adams served as President of the United States (1825–1829) and United States Secretary of State (1817–1825). Prior to being president, he had served as United States Senator from Massachusetts (1803–1808) and had diplomatic experience as United States Minister to United Kingdom (1815–1817), Russia (1809–1814), Prussia (1797–1801) and the Netherlands (1794–1797). After losing the 1828 presidential election, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts for 17 years. He is the only American president to be elected to the House of Representatives after leaving office.
Callahan, David P. (2022). The Politics of Corruption: The Election of 1824 and the Making of Presidents in Jacksonian America. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press. ISBN9780813948430.
McCandless, Perry (1972). A History of Missouri. Vol.II: 1820 to 1860. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. ISBN0-8262-0124-5.
Ratcliffe, Donald (2015). The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN978-0-7006-2159-0.
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